Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Jennifer Milnes | ARABIAN GULF – New members of the AJ Dive Club participate in the confined water...... read more read more
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Maj. Joey Schmitz’s primary duty is to serve as the deputy division surgeon for the 35th Infantry Division; however, he has also taken on a second important role at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait — a role that found him not long after his arrival last July.
When the 35th Inf. Div. arrived in Kuwait, the previous dive club president learned Schmitz was a dive instructor and comfortable in organizing and leading dives, so he recruited Schmitz to the club and then he was elected as the next club president.
Just like with his hobby, Schmitz dove straight into explaining how he came to be a dive instructor.
“I started diving after being the deputy commander for the 7th Civil Support Team in the Missouri National Guard,” Schmitz began.
“In the CST, we were all hazardous material technicians. We all wore level A hazmat suits and self-contained breathing apparatuses to enter environments that can kill you,” he continued.
Once he moved out of the 7th CST to a brigade-level position, he decided that instead of being surrounded by sarin or anthrax, he wanted to be surrounded by water.
“I began taking classes—open water, advanced open water, specialties—I just kept signing up,” said Schmitz. “The owner where I was taking classes, who is a Gulf War veteran, said, ‘Joey, if you keep taking classes, you might as well be an instructor and work for me.’”
So he became an instructor.
It’s easy to hear the passion for diving in his voice, even when he describes the extensive process he had to go through. In order to become an instructor, one has to obtain at least 100 dives, be a rescue diver and be a dive master.
His passion for the water has influenced others in the division as well.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Carol Sprawka, 35th Inf. Div. targeting technician, spoke of how she made her decision to join the AJ Dive Club and how diving has afforded her an opportunity for maintaining resiliency while deployed.
“The opportunity presented itself as did the time on most Sundays,” Sprawka began. “We’re surrounded by water here and my husband got his certification while he was deployed to Djibouti, so it was only fair that I would get mine!” she joked.
While it initially began simply as a way to experience Kuwait off post, Sprawka changed her view on why she continued the course.
“Once we began the open water diving in the Gulf, it became an experience unlike anything words can describe,” continued Sprawka. “It’s a new world that I am now able to enjoy and share with friends. It’s extremely relaxing.”
Although she admits diving on her day off can make for a long Sunday leading back into the work week, she knows that being away from the work environment helps with resiliency and is necessary.
“It can get a bit tiresome, but my favorite thing about open water diving is being part of a larger, unfamiliar world,” said Sprawka.
When thinking about joining, Schmitz says that the course is taught at one pace fits most. However, anyone who is interested in joining the AJ Dive Club needs to attend the mandatory first meeting where most questions and concerns can be addressed.
For new students, you simply need to attend a Wednesday 7 p.m. meeting in classroom 44 by the library in the Post Exchange building here. The meetings last approximately 30 minutes, followed by roughly a 30 minute question and answer session. Schmitz is an instructor for the open water dive course and once certified, there are a couple other classes offered by him and other instructors.
Students will begin with five confined water dives, an online learning course for open water, and finish with four open water dives in the Arabian Gulf in order to get certified. Classes start each Sunday.
For questions about becoming a club member or learning more about the dive certification process, email ajdiveclub@gmail.com and attend a Wednesday evening introductory class at Camp Arifjan.
| Date Taken: | 11.21.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.27.2017 11:01 |
| Story ID: | 256441 |
| Location: | KW |
| Web Views: | 484 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, AJ Dive Club creates unique opportunities, by SFC Jennifer Milnes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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